Full Deck
by Bob Regent
Summary: This is where I'm publishing prologues to stories I never completed, enjoy and let me know what you all think.
1. Brothers In Arms

Title: Brothers in Arms  
Author: Ash's Boomstick  
Contact: "Ash's Boomstick"  
FR-15 For bad language  
Summary: History tells us one thing, knowledge tells us another however ancient legends and hidden myths may yet hold the truth about the past and the future for the people of the known galaxy. A Stargate SG1 Crossover

NOTICE: THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREE OF CHARGE BUT MUST NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM.  
-COPYRIGHT/DISCLAIMER NOTICE-  
"Battlestar Galactica" "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" , its characters, and certain technological devices and/or references to such, from the television show, past present of near future, may be or are registered trademarks of, and may be or are copyrighted by the Universal Studios Corporation and any new owners in the future.  
Only certain characters and technologies are mine and these are the creation of the author who is solely responsible for them as such. Neither Studio is responsible for the content of this story.

THIS STATEMENT MUST ACCOMPANY THE STORY "BROTHERS IN ARMS" IF DISTRIBUTED. THIS STORY IS FREE OF CHARGE AND MAY NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM. THIS DEDICATION MUST ACCOMPANY ANY DISTRUBUTION OF THIS STORY.

Dedication: To the Unusual Suspects.

This is one of five stories that I am posting for people to make their choice on which of these prologues people would like to see the most of.

Battlestar Pegasus  
Flagship  
Colonial Fifth Battle Fleet

"The Fleet stands ready to jump to light speed Commander."

"Very Well Tolan, being jump preparation, destroyers to take point Gunstars to flank the Capital ships."

"Aye Sir." Tolan grinned.

Outside the Viewport the Colonial officers watched as the massed ships of the Colonial Fifth Fleet began to form up, a score of Destroyers took point as cruisers and gunships milled around gradually straightening into lines or squares of ships expanding outwards to englobe the crucial heavy warships. On all sides more than three hundred escorts surrounded the Battlestars, over a dozen of the most powerful vessels ever designed by mankind, from the fifty yahren old monolithic, highly modified Battlestar Selkie to the flagship of this fleet the five hundred yahren old Columbia Class Battlestar Pegasus.

More and more ships had dropped into place behind the Battlestars stretching out far beyond visual range, frigates and bombardment ships locked their long range weapons forward while yet more escorts brought up the vanguard positions to either side incoherent beams of energy scanning the far voids for any signs of life. Vipers streaming past the incredible number of warships flying patrols between the spaced out vessels checking for anything that seemed out of place or that may be watching them from without.

However unlike the missions beforehand this fleet was not alone in its make-up of human built slabs of armour and dart like fighters, within the hordes of human vessels in the main fleet more than sixty other vessels sat clustered together in groups, some were built much like the Battlestars while others loomed even larger and more powerful than the most modern of the Colonial Warships. Many more however were smaller and much unlike anything else seem in the armada, those scant few lucky ships were the last remnants of the myriad of navies that had fought and fallen against the onslaught of the Cylon Empire, those that could flee to the Colonies looking for sanctuary against their enemies.

The full might of the fifth fleet had been assembled for this assault reinforced by surviving Battlestars and cruisers from at least two fleets gutted by the Cylon forces, Cain had been more than pleased when a dozen more ships fresh from the shipyards of Caprica and Picon had been assigned directly to the Pegasus' own task force in place of the exhausted and damaged task force that had been forced to sit out this battle.

Settled within his fleet sat dozens of ships that were alien in literal ways to humanity, over the thousand yahren war several races had been devastated and destroyed by the Cylon advance. What few warships that remained from those lost races had flocked to the banner of the Colonial Living Legend and now they stood alongside their allies determined to make the robotoic interlopers pay with their very existence.

Sitting to the port side of the fifth fleet's command group sat some of the remnants of the lost fourth fleet, for some time the fourth had been the Colonial fleet's mailed fist breaking Cylon thrusts and destroying any attempt to attack the colonies head on. But now after hundreds of yahrens and a dozen major battles the great fleet had been reduced to scattered groups of cruisers and destroyers surrounding a single pair of ancient Battlestars the oldest of their kind remaining in the fleet. Those that had not remained with them had been dispatched to the homeworlds to bolster the first fleet and the rebuilding third, ships that if Cain had to be frank would have better served his forces.

To the starboard those ships that returned or were left behind by the long lost sixth fleet sat, the fact that so much of the Fourth's remaining power had been siphoned off to the other fleet, Cain had demanded that they be merged with Cain's own command to increase available firepower. His demands had been met with agreement and three more Battlestars and a score of escorts had rejoined the fleet, given the fact that the third was being reconditioned the fleet commanders were willing to allow Cain enough rope to hang himself with and he knew it.

Cain was in deep thought as he watched the myriad sections of his grand fleet gather on the scanners, second only to the now lost Fourth Fleet under Kronos his Fifth had been the biggest concentration of allied forces since the early years of the war when hundred ship formations and thousand ship battles had been the norm. Now however with the exception of the Colonial Home Fleet, the rebuilding Third Fleet and the Ninth currently patrolling the outer reaches of Colonial space it was the only fully combat capable force left and the only one available for long ranged combat away from their borders.

He was unhappy that he wasn't able to gather more ships for the fleet, but the Battle Fleet he did have should make mincemeat of any force in the area and to be honest demanding even more ships would have been greedy even for him. Intelligence had gathered proof that the Cylons had been moving forces back towards their inner sectors in order to repair them after so long on the front lines. If the fifth fleet could recapture the Molecay sector and the critical Delphian shipyards then the Colonial allies would be able to take the offensive quickly with the Delphians leading the flank with the fifth and third fleets.

The ships he did have however would be enough to overwhelm any garrison the Cylons could have put into the area, the planet was still under siege after more than fifty years and he was there to make sure that the Cylons would pay for their trespass. More than thirty minutes passed as he went over his plans again, interrupted by his exec he looked out of the bridge window. The hundreds of vessels under his command were assembled and in formation, the huge lumbering human warships interspaced with the slowing ships of the Delphain Empire and the insectile dreadnaughts of the long since destroyed Hasari Commonwealth Cain looked over the scanner screens and nodded approvingly, it was time.

"Colonel."

"All vessels are accounted for Commander, the fleet train have taken position to the rear. Destroyer groups are escorting as ordered."

"Fighter probes?"

"Silver Spar Leader and Bronze Shield Leader have landed, the other fighters are already aboard their vessels."

"Excellent, send to all ships. Immediate shift into light speed and get us to Molecay."

"Gladly Sir."

Almost as one the Grand Fifth Fleet of the Colonial Alliance launched into light speed ripping their way through space towards the Delphian homeworlds and to the first step to victory over the Cylons.

Earth Ship New Sydney  
Alpha Class Destroyer  
Theta Colony Defensive Flotilla

"Yellow Alert All Pilots to their fighters, all defences to standby. Repeat all Pilots to their Fighters."

"Report." Colonel Danton ordered.

"A massive force of unknown ships has appeared close to the outpost at Theta Colony Four, defence command has informed us that their own fighters have begun launching, Theta Base One has already dispatched a full squadron of starfighters to identify." The Chief replied, "Theta's planetary defences are powered, fighter squadrons are fuelling and standing by. Shield is at full power."

"How many ships are we looking at."

"Unknown at the moment Theta Base has them on scans but they are too far away to give a full accounting, some are extremely large carrier craft others are likely to be fighter squadrons perhaps full flotillas."

"Send a report to Earth Defence Command."

"Already on its way Sir, we're just awaiting confirmation of reinforcements if needed."

"Sirs, the unknown forces are in ID range. Three Draconian starfortresses and fighter escorts full launches detected, they must be going all out for this one Sir."

"Activate the Stargate and contact Earth we need help as soon as possible, call back the recon squadron and launch everything we have."

Theta Colony was one of the major worlds along the Alliance's trade 'spine' harkening back hundreds of years to long before the Earth had recovered and returned to space, their immense mineral wealth and biosphere was crucial to the long term recovery of the home world and the breadbasket of the entire sector. Once they had joined the Alliance the other planets had contributed forces to protect them, Earth itself had posted four squadrons of fighters and a full flotilla of their newer gunship/destroyer class ships.

Another six fighter squadrons and a few more light ships were scattered throughout the sector on patrol or defending other critical areas, mostly from other worlds that had bought or built their own variants of the Earth's Thunder Class Fighters. Others were different classes and types including the more ubiquitous Hatchet fighters and Draconian Gunships, stolen or bought from the Draconian Empire and now arrayed against their former owners.

However even with the destroyers and reinforced squadrons the defenders of the Theta system were outnumbered and outgunned by the incoming forces, each of the pilots and their ships were worth several of the Draconian fighters but in the numbers they were facing the enemy ships could take those losses and come out the other side with a sizeable force. The destroyer group would be of use against the Hatchets but the massive fortresses were another matter, all Danton could hope is that the Earth forces would be able to bolster their lines against the Draconians and quickly.

Theta had received planetary anti fighter pulsars and a class one shield originally used by one of the inner planets, it would hold against the incoming ships for a small while but three ships would cause damage that any follow up attack would use to their advantage. The entire defence now lay in the fighters and the pilots that flew them, some of them were green as grass but they were led by men and women that had flown for years and now made their home at Theta each bloodied by the attrition battles with the Draconians or other enemies of the Federation.

"Against that lot Colonel we don't stand much of a chance."

"We'll have to hope Rogers' new training programs do what they need to." Danton replied, "For all our sakes."

Earth Defence Directorate  
Tactical Command Centre  
New Chicago

Deep below the surface of the domed city of New Chicago the Tactical command centre had been the base of operations for the defence of Earth for over one hundred years, originally designed for the command and control of the now-defunct class one planetary shield as well as the planet's ground defences and fighter squadrons the Command Centre had grown and improved to an extent that they wouldn't have expected only ten years before.

A small semicircular office sat high above the screens and readouts overseeing the hundreds of men and women co-ordinating the defences of not just the planet but the solar system, yet more staff were keeping track of ships and fighters throughout the Federation itself. A far cry from the weakened squadrons and compromised shield that made up the Earth's defences during the last attempt against the Earth's solar system by the Draconians, now they were far stronger and meaner than anything else out there.

The commanding office sipped at his coffee as he watched another patrol take off on the screens below him, he missed the buzz of the take off as the magnetic tubes launched him out of the fighter bays far below the surface. Being sidelined was difficult enough but watching the next generation of pilots fighting the good fight was even more so, sighing the figure turned from the screens.

"Colonel." A voice came from outside his door.

"Yes Lt what is it." His weary voice came back, the Colonel had been on duty for more than fourteen hours and was sincerely hoping that his relief would get a move on before he left and dragged the lazy bastard to his post.

"We have an incoming distress call from Theta System, Base One are reporting major Draconian incursion in Federation space. Three Starfortresses and heavy fighter support, Theta has launched all available squadrons and are requesting immediate backup. Our ships are already in system and are also requesting aid."

"Who's in rotation?" The commander asked grabbing his jacket from his chair, he followed the officer down to the main deck. The young woman looked over the incoming reports from Theta.

"The New Australia and her flotilla Sir, Colonel Danton commanding."

"Crap, he wouldn't want help unless it was necessary."

"If this is another major probe Sir?"

"Then we're in for a world of hurt, good job Lt." The Colonel responded "Start full launch procedures, I want everything we can get in the air. Call up the reserves as well."

"Aye Sir."

With that Colonel Buck Rogers left the command room.

In the Defence Directorate Offices Elias Huer was frantically ordering his personnel to their stations, his own computers currently working through the information streaming in from the defence stations throughout the Solar System. So preoccupied with his work that he didn't notice the figure behind him until a firm hand clapped him on the shoulder, whirling round he almost fell over his own feet only to be kept upright thanks to his long term friend.

"Careful Doc." Buck grinned, "I see you've got the gist of our problem."

"Quite right, the Theta system pickets are getting positive locks on the unknown force. They have three command vessels and hundreds of starfighters of an unknown type. There could be more are hiding in the wake of the larger ships not to mention the possibility that they have increased the abilities of their command ships above and beyond that which we have seen."

"Theta Colony just identified the incoming ships as Draconian Fortresses."

"Draconian?"

"Yep." Buck shrugged, "I know, I know. Draco promised to leave Earth alone but I guess he decided that we we're worth keeping it. Three ships and Hatchets."

"Hatchets? Then it's not an invasion." Huer surmised, "Then it's a defensive probe or a raid."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Three fortresses and fighters aren't enough against any of the main planets, Theta is a newer member and even then they would be able to break any attack up long enough for a Federation member to reinforce them."

"Well they're attacking even with the fact that they'll be smashed before they can kill the planet." Buck replied, "They've got a function planetary shield and anti-ship weapons installed right?"

"Yes but only to a class one state, we've not been able to produce enough long range pulsars to refit their defences."

"Great, I've got Sixteen squadrons in the air and the rest scrambling across the solar system… you know we've got a hell of a lot of defences now Doc."

"No Buck."

"What?"

"I'm not putting you in a starfighter again, when you took command of the planetary defence corps from General Deering you became one of the most indispensible members of the Directorate's armed forces. You will be best situated following the squadrons from Command and Control than leading from the front, besides unless you have been keeping up your qualifications even with the council edict on allowing you into fighters again you aren't capable in the newest types of fighters in the directorate."

Buck stayed silent

"You did, didn't you" Huer replied it wasn't a question.

"I persuaded a few of the old timers to let me joyride in the newer marks."

"The Gunships?"

"If I say no will I get in less trouble?"

"Buck that edict is there for a reason you're not a young man any more." Huer fumed, "Wilma, yourself even Colonel Danning have been refused flight clearance to keep you at home to co-ordinate and teach the next generation of pilots. What can't you see about that?"

"Danning went into the Navy, he's on the front lines all the time."

"He's in a ten thousand ton warship Buck not a fragile starfighter."

"Doc, I'm a fighter jockey. I fly when I can still to keep my skills, I'm as fast and as capable as I was when I entered this mad century. Theta is outnumbered and outgunned like crazy, we need every pilot we can get to reinforce them before the Draconians destroy the entire system." Buck exclaimed, "I belong up there."

"Buck I'll make you a compromise." Huer sighed, "I have a feeling you'll find a way around my orders no matter what I say, you can't pilot a fighter but you can use a command destroyer to co-ordinate from space, but the second your ship begins to take fire you get out of there and return to the Theta stations or to one of the colonies."

"Doc you got yourself a deal."

Earth Ship New Johannesburg  
Command Class Destroyer  
Earth Defensive Flotilla Command Ship  
Four Hours Later

High above earth the combined fleet of the Earth Defence Forces were scrambling from their hidden hangers below the planet's surface or deep under the lunar rock. Hundreds of Warhawk class fighters were streaming into orbit while dozens of larger gunships formed up into squads pulling into parking orbit close to the orbiting fighter outposts. Since the return of the Searcher and her crew to Earth after their seven year mission throughout the galaxy and the flaring of hostilities with a number of small powers found across space the people of the Solar System had decided that enough was enough.

As such a number of historians and combat officers had been seconded to R&D to assist with the complete redesign and reconstruction of a force that had been gutted over the decades of conflict using old equipment and inferior training that had caused more losses than at any other time in the directorate's history. Now however the fighters had been redeveloped and upgraded as well as the training making the most of these new craft, however the increase in fighter numbers was not the only improvement to the earth forces.

Several years later and the Earth Defence Directorate had dozens larger gunships formed up into flights, each ship outgunned an entire squadron of Draconian Hatchets with a full wing capable of intercepting and holding the far larger carrier ships to a draw allowing for reinforcements to form up and attack. A combined force of fighters and gunboats had been responsible for the first total annihilation of a draconian fleet with minimal losses, the Earth's loss had been three older Thunder Fighters and their pilots for two fortresses and their entire fighter contingents.

However the attacks had also proven that they were woefully ill equipped to coordinate their forces when away from the main directorate headquarters on Earth, as a result then-Major Buck Rogers had brought forward a design based loosely on those of his own time, the design tentatively called a 'Destroyer' was capable of fleet co-ordination of the entire earth forces and any allies that may get involved. However due to the mass production of fighters and gunships the destroyer shipyards and actual ship construction was reduced to only two per year per yard for the last five years.

With the gunships and fighters under commander of the Directorate HQ on Earth the fleet in being was detached to Mars Command in case of a worst case scenario, several years of construction had allowed for a sizable defence fleet in the sol system now under the command of General Wilma Deering. Formerly the commander of the Defence Directorate Starfighter Corps, Deering had re-taken command of the Corps after their return from the Searcher deep space mission and been tasked with rebuilding the fighter corps.

Her departure from Earth's fighter corps had come through blind misfortune when she had been shot down by a pirate flotilla during patrol, resulting brain damage from the crash landing had left a slight tremor in her right hand at times of stress. Now with her piloting days were effectively over she had decided to step down as fighter commander in favour of someone else, however before handing over her resignation she had been approached by Huer for a very different job.

Now her seven vessel fleet had become the main punching force of the Earth defences capable of taking on several of the Draconian's best ships in a stand up fight, this final tier of highly modified ships had allowed for the slow dissemination of the older fighter squadrons from Earth to their colonies. Along with planetary shielding and anti fighter batteries also of older types the colonies and Federation members were now better defended than they had ever been.

Nine squadrons of fighters had fallen into position surrounding two full squadrons of gunships already holding station, the rest of the fleet was staying behind orbiting the planet in case the attack was a feint, behind the cloud of small craft the Destroyer group sat in support. While the fighters continued to form up close to the warships, two more of the fleet's destroyers settled to the flanks completing the reinforcement group.

"General, our forces are in position and ready." Sarah Brown looked up from her comms screen, "The last of the fighters are entering position."

"Good, have the starfighters enter slip formation. Gunships to flanking."

"Yes Sir."

Wilma sat back in her chair surrounded by the controls and screens of her command desk, leaving the cockpit was the most difficult thing to do for a pilot, but her time as the executive officer of the Searcher had stood her well allowing her to take command of the first flagship of the Earth Stellar Navy.

"Who have the Directorate decided to send as the fighter commander."

"Umm… that's the problem General."

"He did, didn't he?" Wilma Deering sighed

"Yes Sir." Sarah replied, "The London's hailing us."

"Get me the New London on the comms." Wilma shook her head "and divert it to my screen."

Buck sat back in the day quarters of his new flagship browsing the information gathered already about the enemy forces, another report a few minutes before had indicated that the four Thunder fighter squadrons already in theatre had been able to force the Draconians to break off their attack. Outnumbered as badly as they were the losses had already begun to mount, the destroyer pair and gunships in the sector had already reoriented and begun a full burn back to Theta colony but it would take time and the enemy fleet was already close to the planet.

He was itching to get back into the cockpit but Huer had been right even keeping his flight certification had been tough, he'd not fought a fighter on fighter combat in nearly two years and a basic patrol in almost as long. His place was with the planetary command staff or the fighter training school, Earth's defenders had come a very long way since he arrived in this century but even so he couldn't help but want to be back in the thick of it instead of commanding a fleet of fighters from the armoured cocoon of a warship.

"Colonel Rogers."

Buck pushed the button above his head turning the intercom on "Rogers here."

"We have an encoded priority transmission from the Johannesburg, General Deering's responding to your hail Sir"

"That sure as hell didn't take long." Buck smirked, "Put it through here Commander."

"Aye Sir." Buck could hear the Smirk in the Ship's Master's voice, "Good luck Sir, you'll need it."

"Insolent puppy." Buck smirked as Harris killed the connection.

"Buck what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm laying down looking over reports, you?"

"This isn't funny."

"Really I thought it was hilarious."

"Denton's already on site and I'm leading the flotilla through the Stargate, what makes you think that you coming with us is a good idea."

"I've been planetbound for two years Wilma, I've been training pilots in simulators and rebuilding the corps from scratch. When the Draconian hit I was just about ready to jump a fighter and join a squadron."

"That's insane Buck you're not cleared on the Warbirds…. Are you." The question/statement made him shiver slightly.

"My flight clearance is the reason I'm on a destroyer not a fighter." A little white lie with a bit of omission and a sprinkle of truth was always useful in this situation.

"Are you?" Ok so that didn't work, "Dammit Buck."

"Hey half the time I'm stuck in an office or in meetings there was no way I wasn't going to get some stick time in if I could." Buck argued back, "Besides I also hadn't seen my wife in over six months, I got bored."

"You know that wasn't my fault."

"I'm not blaming you Wilma, I just needed to get back into the seat once in a while."

"Alright Buck I'm not getting into an arguement while sitting on by bridge, whats the status of your forces."

"Nine Squadrons of Twenty Fighters, Two squadrons of Nine Gunships and the New London in command. Six spare fighters in the bay."

"Good that should be more than enough." Wilma replied, "Let's get this show on the road."

Buck smirked at his wife's use of his old school colloquialism. "Yep, We're as ready as you are." He grabbed his jacket as he sat up and walked to the door. "Good luck General."

"You too Colonel, see you soon."

Hearing the channel close Buck composed himself and strode through the short corridor to the bridge of the ship, the fleet had already begun moving as he made his way to the command centre of the warship. He had left the Captain in overall control of the New London but had commandeered the tactical/conference room to co-ordinate the squadrons under his command, he wasn't as concerned as he might have been with the fighter squadrons and gunboats crews trained in the new combat techniques he and Wilma had put together as well as input from Danton, Hawk and other survivors of the older squadrons.

Smiling to himself slightly he sat down next to the ships' Captain as they awaited the order to proceed.

"Problem Boss?" The Commander was still smirking.

"Nothing that I couldn't cope with Zig."

"One of these days boss she's going to get you grounded permanently."

"Maybe but then I'll just find another way around it."

"All stations this is the Bridge." A voice interrupted them, "Fleet is cleared for stargate travel, Red Alert. Action Stations."

"And here we go." Buck whispered as the klaxon sounded.

Ahead of the amassed Earth fleet the massive four pointed stargate began to glow as the first vessels approached, waves of energy flowed throughout the construct opening up the folded space tunnel between the Sol System and the Theta System. Dozens of fighters and gunships slipped thorough between the immense generators escorting the larger destroyers at the rear, hundreds of men and women had trained and bled for this chance and now as their half millennia old commander would say… the enemy would pay for this attack…

In Spades.


	2. Hidden Destiny

Title: Hidden Destiny  
Author: Ash's Boomstick  
Contact: "Ash's Boomstick"  
FR-15 For bad language  
Summary: History tells us one thing, knowledge tells us another however ancient legends and hidden myths may yet hold the truth about the past and the future for the people of the known galaxy. A Stargate SG1 Crossover

NOTICE: THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREE OF CHARGE BUT MUST NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM.  
-COPYRIGHT/DISCLAIMER NOTICE-  
"Battlestar Galactica", its characters, and certain technological devices and/or references to such, from the television show, past present of near future, may be or are registered trademarks of, and may be or are copyrighted by the Universal Studios Corporation and any new owners in the future.  
"Stargate SG-1", "Stargate Atlantis" its characters, certain technological devices and/or references to such from the movie characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Gekko Productions Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and the SCIFI Channel.  
The opening pages use the script from the episode 'Lost City Pt 2' with modifications for characterisation and narrative reasons  
Only certain characters and technologies are mine and these are the creation of the author who is solely responsible for them as such. Neither Studio is responsible for the content of this story.

THIS STATEMENT MUST ACCOMPANY THE STORY 'HIDDEN DESTINY IF DISTRIBUTED. THIS STORY IS FREE OF CHARGE AND MAY NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM. THIS DEDICATION MUST ACCOMPANY ANY DISTRUBUTION OF THIS STORY.

Dedication:  
To the members of the Unusual Suspects who time and again have listened to my drivelling ideas for new fics and stranger ideas than this one and to the fans of my other works, while this fic isn't RaaB this one is just something to allow me to have  
some fun.

Note: Over the course of the last five years the members of the Suspects have come up with ideas for a British version of Stargate Command, now considering the rapidly expanding numbers of AUs based on the premise on the net I decided that a new way of doing things was needed. This may be slightly Britwank in parts but considering SG1 is Ameriwank at its best I think I might be forgiven for this.

Second Note: Over the last few months I've noticed a few things in regard to Sgverse fics where the United States are not the major force behind some form of space travel. More than one person in threads on some forums have out and out argued and screamed against the very idea, if they don't like this kind of fic then why bother reading it at all?

This is one of five stories that I am posting for people to make their choice on which of these prologues people would like to see the most of.

"Hidden Destiny"

Chapter One: When life hands you lemons, get a mallet.

"The Goa'uld forces are still incoming, reading another flight of bombers and a hell of a lot of gliders entering the atmosphere. Four minutes until they close."

"We're taking damage to the outer hull."

"All the remaining F-302's have expended their ordnance."

"We can't take them back aboard. They'll have to divert to McMurdo." Hammond ordered.

Major Kirkland grimaced as the ship took another hit "We need to break off and recharge the shields.

"Hold your position!"

"Yes Sir."

Outside of the Prometheus the dozens of gliders and a handful of bombers had been rapidly reduced to splinters and burnt out hulls, the 302s had taken far fewer losses due to their better pilots and superior firepower. The Battlecruiser had take its own fair share of the Jaffa down in short order its weapons sending out salvos of AA fire in all directions, however with the majority of fighters out of the battle and a very few left behind to help defend the warship itself the next wave would be more than enough to overcome their advanced shielding and heavy armoured hull.

Singularly or in pair the 302s now devoid of armaments were forced to bug out leaving the single sole warship between SG1 and the massed forces of Anubis, *If we survive this* thought Hammond *I'm going to follow Jack's recommendation and say 'screw the treaty'*

"Shields are failing."

"Scout ship's cleared the hole." Gant said

"Set a course for Anubis's mothership. Move us out of here." General Hammond ordered Kirkland.

"Bring main engines online, emergency thrust."

"Sir we have multiple contacts coming in from within our atmosphere, coming in at approximately Mach six."

"What direction?"

"Coming in from Australia Sir, they are almost on top of us."

"Continue climbing, lock weapons on incoming signals."

The incredibly fast dots on the screen slipped across the Antarctic tundra heading towards the Prometheus' position when they began to slow and break of into several individual groups. Gant brought up the close range scans up eyes widening as a confirmation of allied IFF codes were brought up by the computer, rechecking the system she looked across at the General.

"Sir, the incoming fighters have NATO IFF transponders, the system is flagging them up as friendlies." Gant said, "The Goa'uld wouldn't bother trying to trick us with this kind of thing Sir they already out number and outgun us."

"What IFF?"

"Databanks show, Australian, new Zealand and United Kingdom Sir."

"What?" Hammond asked "ETA of the new fighters?"

"ETA is thirty five seconds, two of the groups are heading directly for the Goa'uld forces the third is heading for the remaining fighters from the last group." Gant replied, "Apart from relative size and speed I'm not getting much off of them, some kind of stealth is scattering our scans."

"Flag them as unknown but do not fire on them, if they are an ally then I want them on our side."

"Aye Sir."

"The American warship is heading for orbit Sir, Blue Wing are intercepting the remaining Jaffa fighters still within the atmosphere, white and green wings are diverting to hit the second attack wave."

"Very well, contact the rest of our ships and plot intercept course over Antactica. Raise camouflage fields, weapons to full power. Red Alert." Came the order from the captain.

"Red Alert this is a Red Alert, all hands to battle stations."

"Flight crews to their fighters, ready for immediate launch."

"Tactical Command to Tactical sections, lock all weapons into combat positions. Main guns to standby."

"This is the Exec, lock down all vacuum doors, ready emergency systems."

"Sir Digger One and Husky One are en route, both will be within range in Six minutes. They are requesting launch instructions." Comms replied.

The ship's master turned from his vantage point looking out through the massive window taking up one side of his command's bridge, the view of the star field slipped away as an armoured covering closed over the transparent metal. "All fighters to launch as they enter optimum range, focus on the fighters first then concentrate fire on one threat warship per squadron."

"Roger that."

"American ship is reading as out of the Atmosphere."

"Very well let's inform them of our existence. Heavy Gun Port to Command Flank One, Starboard to Command Flank Two."

"Enemy Targeted and Shooting Solution is confirmed."

"Fire One, Fire Two."

"Firing One."

"Firing Two."

From the underside of a truly monstrous ship a thick bright beam erupted. piercing through camouflage fields revealing the craft underneath and slamming into the side of one Goa'uld warship. One of the guard vessels surrounding Anubis' command ship itself, the heavy beam shattered the enemy shields like glass carving through the vessel's hull and out through the other side. The hole left behind crackled with energy as the beam passed through and into space narrowly missing another ship, with power disrupted completely the damage expanded within milliseconds causing the vessel to come apart before their very eyes.

A second beam fired from the now uncovered warship spearing a second Ha'tak from stem to stern and sending it the same way as its deceased sister ship, the beam shooting through and into the shielding of the massive command ship. Anubis' vessel shook slightly as the immensely powerful weapon shook the shield generators in their mountings, several of the closest warships pulled in closer through the debris of their brothers hoping to hold off the enemy ships before the human scum could harm their god.

Aboard the Prometheus Hammond's command shuddered as it took hit after hit from the closest cluster of warships, the massive energy pulses hammered at the weakening energy field protecting Earth's single home-grown warship energy bleeding through in some cases and damaging the thick hull armour. Already several sections were open to the vacuum of space where the heaviest blasts from the command vessel were breaking through.

Several of the CIWS guns fell silent as they passed by the last of the incoming enemy fighters scattering the Jaffa, several gliders fell to the defensive fire while others turned and attempted to fire back. Gant tapped in several more targets launching the small ship's last few missiles, several were simply intercepted while others impacted on the command ship's shields their explosive force wasted on the ancient enhanced shielding. Gant grimaced at his readout, the last of the conventional guns had ceased fire due to lack of ammunition, the missiles were used up and the defensive systems were redlining. "The Shields are down. Weapons are expended."

"The next hit's gonna take us out." Kirkland replied,

"Hold your course, brace for collision. If we go, they go." Hammond looked out at the massive Goa'uld command ship, the Prometheus could be used quite easily as the single biggest explosive built by Earth hands. Once they hit Anubis' ship the reactors and hyperdrive would erupt turning everything around them into plasma including both ships and their crews.

"Sir we're getting a signal, reads." Kirkland shouted as a heavy red stream impacted on one of the Ha'taks, a second pyramid erupted from another hit both vessels hulled and practically shattered by the impressive firepower of the unknown ship. On Kirkland's screen hundreds of small dots launched en masse into the void, more than a hundred fighters emerged from each arm of the ship heading into space before another salvo from the vessel pierced the shields of another pair of Ha'taks close by. "It reads 'Attention American Warship, pull back and watch you're six. This is about to get messy', its signed Group Captain Metcalfe Royal Air Force."

"Fire has slackened on all sides, shields are reforming." Gant replied, "Sensors are picking up two more unknowns on the other side of the enemy fleet. Same basic shape and size as the British vessel, massive fighter launches detected from both ships heading for the Goa'uld fleet at least four hundred fighters total possibly more."

"What the hell is going on here?" George asked himself.

"Digger and Husky are in range Sir."

"Order them to fire on targets of opportunity."

"Aye Sir."

"Fighters are launching from enemy ships Sir." Hazelden said from her tactical console, "We have the Americans on scope, they are badly damaged, shields are however reforming and recharging they should be up to full power within six minutes."

"Good, Comms. send to American ship. Return to Earth we've got this in hand." Metcalfe Replied, "All fighters to designated targets, if anything tries to escape kill it."

"Yes Sir." His exec grinned nastily.

The order was for little as a stream of light lit the skies above Earth, from the surface of Antarctica a column of tens of thousands of small projectiles hit the Goa'uld fleet full force ripping through their shields in into the ships themselves. Smaller branches broke off from the main stream with hundreds of the tiny weapons heading towards every ship, fighter and bomber in the Goa'uld force while the rest of the thousands upon thousands of the devices simply hammered Anubis' supership into shrapnel.

The rearguard ships sat terrified as their numbers depleted in moments, twin energy bolts from the rear entered one side of the hindmost ships whilst more of the projectiles entered the other. More of the giant pyramid vessels collapsed as their hulls were punctured by thick beams of coherent energy or vapourised by fire from the planet's surface. With several hundred of the newly arrived and unstoppable fighters already stripping their fleet of glider support the Jaffa could only watch as the vice closed on their ships… and their lives.

Within moments the last of the golden hued ships ceased to exist destroyed to a ship while the few fighters and bombers left fell to the guns of the massive numbers launched from the British ships. However three of the largest formations of the glowing missiles slipped through their formations, a few spinning around each of the small dart-like figures. While the majority headed straight for the three huge warships ploughing through space before ceasing as one ahead of the British vessels, hanging stock still before them.

"Well that wasn't what I expected." Metcalfe said eyes widened, "Adam are we running recognition pennants?"

"No Sir, we didn't see the need." His Exec reported, "None of our running lights or identification systems are online.

"Raise the Battle Flags." Metcalfe called across the Bridge.

"All identification systems now active Sir." The young Lt replied.

Alongside the name plates of each ship a holographic stream appeared as if unravelling, the well know red white and blue crosses of the United Kingdom's union flag on top of a white background.

A Battle Ensign of the Royal Navy.

The glowing missiles reversed course splitting into hundreds of smaller groups and headed back towards Earth returning to their launch cradles deep within the planet's surface. As the weapons leave the four remaining live and intact ships decrease their speed as they close in on the others, the Prometheus fired her retro systems bringing her to a halt high above the planet's surface well out of range of the billions of tons of debris that is now scattered across the trans-orbital space of Earth. Silently the crew of the American vessel stared at the three warships ahead of them, watching as the three battlewagons came to a halt well with the weapons range of either side.

With their weapons and armament all but depleted the Prometheus shut down both systems completely, without time or a chance to recharge their systems the Battlecruiser would stand little to no chance against even one ship especially one that could destroy several Ha'taks with a single strike. The fact that three of these vessels now sat within range meant that no matter their shield status or armament they would stand no chance at all against the huge vessels.

"A Battle Ensign on a ship claiming to be Royal Air Force?" Kirkland questioned. "How the hell did they get something that big let alone three of them?"

"I don't know. Hail them." Hammond ordered

"On all channels Sir."

"This is Major General George Hammond, Commanding the United States Air Force Ship Prometheus to British Space Forces please respond"

The crew held silent as they awaited the communications channel to respond, the three massive war vessels simply sat in space their crocodile like shape and hanging pods making them look far more dangerous than any ship that existed in this galaxy. After only a few seconds the channel spoke up, both audio and visual signals were received and put up onto the screens around the bridge, a middle aged forty something man looked back from those same screens a slight smirk on his face.

"This is Group Captain Paul Metcalfe of Her Majesties' Royal Air Force commanding the First Battleship Squadron. Could you give us your status please." The friendly request was less that than an order.

"We read you Group Captain, the Prometheus is intact with limited damage, we will be able to make landfall as soon as we are finished up here."

"Glad to hear it General." The British officer smiled. "We had hoped to be in place before the loss of your people got too heavy, I'm sorry we were late although that little light show pretty much meant you probably didn't need us as much as we thought and put more than a little scare into my flight crews. I assume that... whatever it is is now under United States military control?"

"As far as I know Group Captain, we had a few people on the ground looking for something."

"Well as long as it's under allied control that shouldn't be much of a problem, we sent a few squadrons to Antarctica once we realised that there was a battle going on. I'm sorry we didn't get there earlier to limit the losses you took but we had no idea this force was inbound until a few hours ago, it took us that long to get units into position."

"The help was appreciated Group Captain, although I'm surprised at the size of your forces especially as my government believed that the United States were the only military with a space going capability." Hammond pried slightly "Your ships are far more powerful than any we have seen outside of the Asgard."

"There are great areas of the galaxy that haven't been brought to heel by the Goa'uld or any of the other races, lets just say that more than one of them holds treasures that no-one on Earth could dream of. But for now General I will bid you farewell, we'll probably be seeing you again, Metcalfe out."

With that the screen went blank, the scanners and the old mark one eyeballs of those crew that could see the three vessels bank away from the Battlecruiser before vanishing from both screen and sight. Hammond leant back in his seat and rubbed his eyes with tired fingers, he had absolutely no idea how he was going to explain this to the President not to mention that idiot Kinsey.

White House  
Washington DC  
Twelve Hours Later

"Let me get this straight the United Kingdom has orbital forces?" President Hayes stood up from his chair rounding on his old friend, Hammond had been informed that Kinsey would not be at this meeting, simply due to the fact that the other politician was still trapped at Edwards until the NORAD systems were back up and running after being routed to Canadian airspace. George wondered what the former Senator now Vice President was going to think when he found out that he was now even further from getting his wishes than before.

"Not just orbital forces Mr President, but three space going Battleships more than twenty times bigger than the Prometheus." Hammond replied, "Plus an unknown quantity of fighters and shuttles that assisted in the Battle over Antarctica with a very large force of fighters launched from their vessels."

"How the hell did they get hold of that kind of hardware without us knowing about it?"

"Considering the size and complexity they must have been building them offworld, the ships are definitely human designed and built. Without access to those ships and their technology we don't know how far ahead of us they are, the fact that their weapons can destroy Goa'uld vessels with single shots makes them all the more impressive compared to the Prometheus or the Daedalus."

"The new ship design right?"

"Yes Sir, she's twice the size and three times the power of the Prometheus."

Hayes leant back on his desk, the Prometheus was the crowing achievement so far by the combined SGC/Area 51 boffins. The fact that they had been outplayed by the United Kingdom and her allies without even an inkling of the power that their old friends had was thought provoking, not to mention scary. While the SGC were working on larger and larger nukes and concentrating on Jack of All Trade type ships, the British now had three battlewagons each the size of a small city with weapons that could wipe out a planet.

"What did this Group Captain say exactly?"

"Not much once we had confirmed who we were and who they were, my guess is that they are simply waiting."

"Waiting. Waiting for WHAT."

"You Mr President."

"Me?" Hayes replied, "Why me?"

"The British have shown their cards, they know what we have and where we are. The only thing left is for the heads of our respective governments to acknowledge what we already know."

"The British Government already know about the Stargate and the Three-Oh programs George, what else can we tell them. Hell after letting them in on the Gate why the hell didn't they tell us about these superships they have?"

"My guess Mr President?"

"Go ahead."

"Considering the influence that Vice President Kinsey had both within and outside the government they may have decided that we couldn't be trusted with the knowledge especially with the NID trying to get their claws into anything to do with off-world travel. After his initial attempts to take over the SGC and the frankly transparent attempt at the disclosure conference I doubt many people on that side of the Atlantic trust him." George replied, "With the NID, the Trust and god knows how many other groups out there trying to get hold of both advanced technology and resources and willing to do anything to get it, I would be wary of anybody that wasn't part of my own command or under my government. Hell I'd be wary of people within my own, no offence intended Mr President."

"None taken General, given the things that I've uncovered in the last few weeks I'm surprised that the military haven't tried a coup of some kind. How the hell have you and the rest of Stargate Command got through this stuff let alone facing our own people over control of the gate?"

"With difficulty Sir, with great difficulty."

"So what do we do about the British forces, they are suppose to be our closest ally and friend these days although knowing that we trusted the Russians with information about the Stargate and our other projects long before we told them put a glitch in the relationship between Downing Street and the White House." Hayes sighed, "The problem here George is we should have trusted at least one of our allies, but our holding it secret combined with the fact that they had no reason to trust us with the information about their own space forces means that neither of us really knows what the other is up to."

"You can change that Henry." Hammond relaxed slightly, the two of them had known each other a long time and this conversation was heading very much into the informal. "Contact the British Prime Minister and ask him the truth, where they got their technology from and about a proper alliance against the Goa'uld. With the combined power and technologies of both groups we'd be able to defend this world a hell of a lot better than we have to date."

"You know that half of the people in the know in this country are gonna go apeshit George, we've gone from top dog in the space race to a seriously distant second in less than a day." Hayes looked to his friend, "The fact is the Brits have somehow bypassed every defence we have and brought themselves up to our level or higher."

"We don't know how much more advanced they are, there was no evidence of hyperdrives or shields just heavy guns and the massive ships themselves. They may be glass elephants big and powerful but easily taken down."

"Can we take that risk, if their defences are as powerful as their weapons then they could take out anything we could build."

"Mr President this is the British, an ally for more than ninety years. Their empire building days were long ago."

"I know that George but do you think that everyone in congress or in this IOA you helped put together will believe that. Unlike the US there is no reason for the Brits to share their ships and their technology with the rest of the planet, they obviously don't need it like we did."

"We just need to talk to them Mr President and I'm pretty sure that he's just waiting for you to contact him, by now their own people will have told him that we know who they are." Hammond looked to his Commander in Chief, "If we don't make the first move we may end up at logger heads and none of us want that…Sir"

Hayes moved back behind his desk and sat down, the hotline to the British Prime Minister sat to the side next to three other phones belonging to the other members of the IOA. Picking up the phone Hayes waited as a series of scramblers; redirects and a supercomputer coding sequence were activated before putting through the call to the Office of the British Prime Minister. It was only a few seconds before the other side was picked up, the British' own coding sequence securing their end of the line, a modified combination of the same secure lines between the SGC and the Pentagon was now used for the heads of the allied governments worldwide.

"Hello Henry." A highly accented voice came from the phone, "I believe I know why you are calling."

"Daniel, a relatively large birdy has informed me that the British government has been holding out on us."

"Not holding out as such Henry, more along the lines of not all showing all of our cards. I will attest to the fact that we could have let you know but after that serious debacle of a conference during disclosure my predecessor and now myself both agreed that we were better off keeping our force projection abilities to ourselves than allowing the rest of the world to know about it."

"Once the Stargate and our associated projects were unveiled to the rest of the IOA it seems that my government would have preferred that nothing that could be helpful would be held from the other countries involved."

"We to be perfectly frank old man, those in the know over here were more than slightly annoyed at the fact that your people decided not to let us know earlier than our old friends in the East."

"That was beyond our control…"

"Oh we're well aware of the amount of control that you had, it's just a shame that we had to wait seven years to hear about this when people who had been your greatest enemies and rivals ten years before were in the know." The Prime Minister said, "The problem here was one or trust, no matter how close our countries are in ties there is never going to be a time that either of will trust each other with the deepest darkest secrets. The ships you saw are just one of our own, something no-one else needed to know about until now."

"So are you going to tell the rest of us about this or are you keeping it a secret."

"Until the Queen and those in the council agree I'm afraid I won't be in an position to give away any information on our vessels, I assume that you understand the need for national security."

"When I go to the oversight committee about this they'll be an uproar Dan."

"Henry, with all respect I really don't give a damn about your committees, they've made enough of a mess as it is." The British leader's voice tightened, "Now I like you Henry and I believe we could even be considered friends with our common interests but the fact is that we've been screwed by our allies and enemies both over the last hundred years. So we're a little gun shy about allowing anyone else information about our capabilities."

"The manpower and costs must be astronomical Daniel, you can't possibly be able to continue this alone. With the combined forces of the United Kingdom and the United States we could easily combine our forces and take down anyone that threatens our world."

"Henry, Henry, Henry." The Prime minister's voice took on a smirk, "What makes you think that we haven't already got more than enough people and resources to keep our ships going, you really think that the fall of our empire was solely due to the Second World War?"

Hayes' eyebrows shot to his forehead as he unravelled the other politician's words, they had had access to their new technology for decades if not most of the last century. Supplies and money hadn't been used or disappeared when countries broke away or were given independence, Britain had fought harder than most and lost their Empire in doing so much to the cheer of the anti-imperialists of the American government. They must have been sending men, equipment, supplies and god knows what else offworld during the war in case the island nation fell, if so then after sixty years an incredible amount of growth was possible.

This was not something that congress or at least those in the know will be happy about, especially now that the British Empire was interstellar.

Not happy would be an understatement.


	3. In The End

Title: In the End  
Author: Ash's Boomstick  
Contact: "Ash's Boomstick"  
FR-15 For bad language  
Summary: History tells us one thing, knowledge tells us another however ancient legends and hidden myths may yet hold the truth about the past and the future for the people of the known galaxy. A Stargate SG1 Crossover

NOTICE: THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREE OF CHARGE BUT MUST NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM.  
-COPYRIGHT/DISCLAIMER NOTICE-  
"UFO, Space 1999", its characters, and certain technological devices and/or references to such, from the television show, past present of near future, may be or are registered trademarks of, and may be or are copyrighted by Gerry Anderson, ATV Corporation and any new owners in the future.  
Only certain characters and technologies are mine and these are the creation of the author who is solely responsible for them as such. Neither Studio is responsible for the content of this story.

THIS STATEMENT MUST ACCOMPANY THE STORY "IN THE END" IF DISTRIBUTED. THIS STORY IS FREE OF CHARGE AND MAY NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM. THIS DEDICATION MUST ACCOMPANY ANY DISTRUBUTION OF THIS STORY.

Dedication: To the Unusual Suspects.

This is one of five stories that I am posting for people to make their choice on which of these prologues people would like to see the most of.

In the End

"In the days since the last time we were sent through a space warp the Commander has ordered a complete visual check of the exterior of Alpha and the surrounding areas, Eagles One and Nine are en route to the Nuclear waste dumps on the other side of the moon. Fortunately the Eagle pads were intact allowing the of my pilots to explore and clear the immediate area close to Alpha, for now though I'm just happy enough to relax and take a ride across the moon on a milk run."

Group Captain Alan Carter leaned backwards in his seat as he guided Eagle One across the lunar landscape, legs up on the console he looked the image of a bored pilot simply biding his time. Fortunately for the Australian few knew the lunar landscape between the sections of Moonbase Alpha better than he did and his image was just that an image. Even so the boredom of the basic patrols was getting to him, but with more than half of his pilots down from the last set of attacks, the trip through the warp and all round exhaustion, he had decided to take another set of them while roping in others to assist.

"Hey Tony you alive out there?" He said into the radio, Eagle Nine had taken the lower stockpiles and was drifting a few thousand miles to his south.

"Well if you see me ploughing into the ground I'm either dead or asleep."

Carter laughed, "Well considering how quiet it is I expected you to have said something by now."

"Nah just thinking is all."

"Ahh, a bad habit to get into. Besides any more genius ideas like the last one and we'll never get the stains out of the ceiling."

"That wasn't my fault, the equipment should have worked it must have been a fermentation problem maybe a build up of..." Tony cut off his tirade as his console beeped, "Alan, check your low frequency transmitter I'm getting a signal and it's not coming from me or Alpha."

"Nope low frequency is off." Carter sat up, "I'm checking the readings, odd I'm picking it up as well. It's a very low band emission, short range. It's reading as coming from a thousand miles to the North West close to the Mare."

"We don't have anything even close to out that far."

"Hence the problem." Carter frowned, there was something at the back of him mind about this signal, something he should remember instinctively.

"Alright, I'm only a hundred miles or so out from the source." Alan replied frowning, "Could be one of the older probes or something from the earlier moon landings."

"Or a problem with the low gain antenna?"

"Maybe, I'll get it checked out when we get back to Alpha." Carter grinned to himself, I'm heading for the co-ords."

"Watch your back Alan." Tony replied.

"Always do old friend."

Eagle One banked slightly as it's pilot shifted course towards the far off signal, as he closed the signal began to show on his faulty radio system. A small low power pulse emanating from just ahead of him, unease settled in his stomach growing as he approached the area. A lot of the surface of the errant satellite was well known to the Eagle Pilots but this part was more than that to the Australian. The feeling in his mind was becoming clearer with every moment, almost automatically he moved his instruments onto a course and speed lower than he would usually use.

Pulling back on the throttle Carter brought the Eagle to a relative crawl, the signal was directly to his west less than one hundred meters away. With the light of a nearby star already illuminating the area he could see where several rockslides and collapses all around the area, the debris now simply enveloping a small group of buildings and gantryways leaving a bare third of it now uncovered and visible.

"Holy Christ, it can't be."

"Alan say again?" Tony replied.

"How is it still there?" Alan whispered to himself

"Alan." Tony shouted on the radio, "Eagle One this is Eagle Nine, do you receive."

It had been years since he had seen the place longer since he had flown from it, after all these years how could it still have been intact. Orders had been orders and almost nothing should still have existed a decade after it was shut down. Carter shook himself from his fugue and hit the transmission button.

"Eagle One to control, there's something out here" Carter replied "It's a base."

"What? Say again." Paul Morrow replied

"Get the Commander, we've got another moonbase up here."

"Alan?" The familiar voice of John Koenig came over the radio, "What have you got?"

"John, we've got another base up here. It's a lot smaller than Alpha but its intact, just buried in dust and rock." Carter's voice was strangely subdued considering the find.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure John, it's half buried but it's there. Maybe a quarter the size of Alpha on the surface, there might be something worth salvaging perhaps even using the base itself."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves Alan, it might have people aboard."

"I doubt it Commander, I don't think is been in use for quite a while."

"How could you know that for sure Alan? There's nothing in the computer to tell us what it is or who put it there."

"Actually Commander I think I might do."

"SHADO, Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation."

"Alien Defence?" Professor Bergman started.

"In the late seventies Colonel Edward Straker of the US Air Force and General James Henderson of the United Kingdom's Army began construction of a massive multinational defence command dedicated to the interception and destruction of Alien UFOs, in 1980 the group became active and began the continued defence of the people of Earth from those same craft, the first attack was recorded in 1969 which included the kidnapping of humans en masse. For decades flying saucer shaped vessels had been seen by the public more than one, several had even been seen landing over the same amount of time including one or two that had been captured by the US and British militaries."

"Given that they had been attacking for decades at this point we had finally reached a point where the human race could fight back, Moonbase was the front line of said organisation." Carter looked up, "Once contact was made with an incoming UFO, SHADO Command would order fighters into the air, our first line of defence was a small group of one man aircraft stationed in underground launch pads before coming to the surface for take off much like our Eagles do, each was equipped with a medium range missile with a particularly nasty little nuclear warhead. Each would attempt to intercept the enemy ships, hence interceptors. Sometime one would attack sometimes a whole batch of the buggers."

Alan sat at the far end of the table facing Koenig, with his return the Commander had grabbed him and brought him into a meeting with the heads of sheds from the entirety of Alpha. Paul Morrow, Victor Bergstrom, and David Kano sat to one side while John, Helena Russell and Tony Verserchi sat on the other. The Australian pilot rubbed his eyes slightly as he continued talking, it had been a long day and by the looks of it it was going to be far, far longer.

"After the first few attacks Straker got funding to start up a short range defence against the Aliens, a few fighter squadrons across the world got secondary training and black budget funding. It wasn't enough, for years we were barely able to hold the line against the aliens so as their attacks increased so did the budget, pissing off more than a few of the senior officers in the countries attached. Some Generals found their pet projects out of the air or scrapped completely, some like Henderson didn't like the idea that some parts of his territory were being impinged on by Straker."

"Over the next few years new technology and fresh weapons designs came off the boards allowing the fight into orbit then past the moon itself, Moonbase as it was called was created under the pretence of a short term inhabitation by a colony group, three quarters of the way under construction the rest of the world got word that the base was destroyed by a massive shift that buried it. SHADO managed to finish it in peace and keep it running with no-one the wiser."

"Thats a hell of a lot to keep secret."

"It gets better" Alan explained, "Three quarters or more of the attacks were on British or British claimed soil so they needed a command centre that would allow them to come and go as they pleased without anyone noticing."

"Not easy not in England and sure as hell not in the 80s."

"Right so they hid in plain sight more or less." Carter leant back, "Burying SHADO HQ about fifty meters below the surface at the same time as building a large lot above them, SHADO made back most of their budget plus the costs of keeping the film studios above them active. Pissed off the Brass no end."

"I knew I recognised the name."

"Victor?" Koenig asked his friend

"Straker." Burgstrom insisted, "As in Harlington-Straker studios in Bedfordshire, back in the seventies and eighties they put out some of the best films available. The Mob Hill Murders, Abduction of a Hero..."

"Actually that one we made to cover up one of the worst attacks we had to face off, we were lucky it was successful."

"That was one of my favourites."

"I'm sure Commander Straker and Colonel Foster would have liked to hear that, they hated it."

"Back to the topic at hand please gentlemen."

"Sorry Commander, once SHADO was up and running we were able to form a substantial defence especially for the limited technology we had available, as I said first stop was the Moonbase. If the UFOs got past the interceptors and the Moonbase defensive line then the next set of defences would be in position to hit the UFOs inside our atmosphere, usually via one or more supersonic attack aircraft from land or from sea and if they got past those then they would wither be intercepted by ground vehicles including missile equipped mobiles or they would end up landing anyway."

"What did they want?" asked Paul Morrow, "It's hard to believe that they'd come from another star to cause a problem that necessitated such a response."

"When the aliens landed most were captured or killed, more than one autopsy let us know exactly what they wanted. One poor bastard I was unfortunate enough to see taken apart had human organs in place of what should have been something else, still pink and red but tinged green from their atmospheric needs. They were harvesting humans for their organs Paul, hearts, livers, lungs, kidneys, heck even gall bladders were found stitched into their chests. One had almost an entire person's internal organs transplanted en masse." Alan looked at Morrow with a haunted look, "Men, women, children, didn't matter to them who they took and when as long as they could get what they wanted. The first one we took down had stuff from one of my pilots' sister' when she was taken in 1969."

"Oh." Paul replied, "Sorry."

"No foul Paul, you weren't to know." Alan looked back to Koenig, "Then in 1983 about four or five years after SHADO was established a single UFO appeared in lunar space, it was incredibly well equipped, better weapons, better armour and was twice as fast as the originals. It shrugged off two direct hits from the interceptors and a missile barrage from two Skydiver aircraft, it took sixteen people then killed three SHADO operatives and their mobile before getting away. Including our second in command."

"1983." Helena Russell spoke up, "The Albright explosion?"

"Yep, Albright Close. With so many people missing or dead and the arrival of a UFO SHADO had to cover it up somehow, they put the dead operatives in Police uniforms and put them at the scene of the abduction before blowing the place to pieces. No-one knew any different afterwards, nineteen people lost to a terrible accident. Oh several groups were blamed or took credit, the IRA, the Scottish Republicans, hell even the Red Crescent and the Pan-Asian Defence Movement claimed it."

"So what happened?" Victor spoke up

"The Interceptor pilots were cleared of any wrongdoings and put back on duty, but one of the senior pilots couldn't go back onto flight status and left the squadron for other duties within SHADO." Alan leaned back, "The brass decided that if more than one of those new UFOs managed to penetrate earth space then they could take anyone and as many as they wanted to and we couldn't scratch them. A team was assembled was ordered to find a way to take them down, the pilot joined them as one of the few people at that point that had survived facing the aliens.

The pilot stood up at this point and paced behind his chair, the decision to tell them everything had been a very easy one but the telling of the tale was one that was far harder than he would have thought. Silently he gripped the back of his seat and lowered his voice slightly, less of a story and much more of a horrific and terrible memory.

"Eighteen months, the loss of six entire squadrons of Interceptors,, the almost total destruction of the Skydiver fleet and any atmospheric aircraft SHADO could scrounge, One hundred and four ships and planes, five hundred personnel, ninety three agents, and four hundred and sixty seven civilians taken but nothing could be done to stop the bastards. Everything single thing that our defences had built up over five years was gone and we were running out of time, they stopped sending the old type of ship and left the new ships on their kidnapping missions, maybe they had none left or maybe they realised that they only needed to send a few missions with the ability to pick up more victims. At first they came less frequently allowing us to rebuild small amounts of our defence fleet just to see whatever we could send up wiped out, we managed to take one of them down over the straits of Dover took the last of our ships to do it. Oddly enough it was out first and last laser equipped prototype Eagle."

"So what did you do Alan?" John replied, Carter's smile turned to a grin for a second before he spoke again.

"Well it wasn't as if it wasn't obvious." Alan looked at the others around the table, "13th February 1985, the Aliens got cocky. Whoever they had in charge had realised that nothing we could send up even came close to stopping them anymore, as far as they could tell every ship we had was gone, every defence exhausted. For months they were able to attack without a single attempt to stop then, so one day six advanced UFOs appeared in the solar system directly on a course to Earth deliberately moving through every remaining defence we had as if to say 'your attempts to stop us are laughable'. This time however Moonbase didn't go to alert, the last interceptors we had stayed in place and the only proof we'd seen them was the alert from our long range orbital telescope."

February 13th 1985  
Trans-Earth Orbit

"Confirmed Squadron Leader, SID has six, repeat six UFOs on direct intercept for the western hemisphere, point of impact Somerset England."

"Roger that Command, Squadron is under stealth, going to EMCON status. Wish us luck."

"Good Luck Shadow Lead. Command Out."

"Wonder which smart arse come up with that squadron call sign." Squadron Leader Alan Carter said to himself, "Ok, engines to idle, main reactor to five percent, weapons to standby. This should be an interesting fight."

To his flanks another eleven ships floated dark and quiet in high orbit of the planet, with the majority of their defences against the aliens all but useless, he had completely retired from the Interceptor wing and returned to the ground side part of SHADO HQ. However his skills as a pilot and higher than average IQ had had him sideways transferred to the World Space Agency's Test Piloting Corps. It hadn't been long before he had realised why he'd been sent there, almost half of the Corps were SHADO personnel under secondment to the WSA.

Prototypes of what was being referred to as an 'Eagle' were already built and under testing when he arrived, compared to what he had been flying with the Aussie Air Force and at Moonbase it was a scow but a scow with a lot of promise. Within weeks he had gone over the specs and made modifications to them before talking to the ground crew of Proto-3, the changes were made immediately and within the month he was at the controls of a far faster, agile and above all more powerful vessel.

Since that day he had tweaked and modified the design beyond its original parameters slowly turning the cargo ship into something far more deadly, the single forward laser was split and enhanced by adding sponsons to the head while a missile battery was added to the main body within the removable cargo pod. Others in the team had looked over his evolving design and changed much of the design, more powerful engines from the Earth-Moon run rockets replaced the less capable ones aboard the Eagle, the armour and structural members were refined and strengthed even compared to the freighter.

Once his design was distributed to the other teams his ideas took flight as one by one the systems were modified, changed or removed totally until a ship very unlike the Eagle took shape, while a very different vehicle it could use off the shelf components from the Eagle, Moon Shuttle and a small number of SHADO based systems.

Within the year he was test flying his dream craft, prototypes had been used and discarded and several later marks had been built for use by the WSA and SHADO however only months ago he had recieved training on the Mark Seven Hawk. This latest version was fast, agile and better armed than some planet based warships, while still a prototype vehicle the Hawk could outfly Eagles and Interceptors in space and the Skydivers in atmosphere, in one fell swoop Alan Carter and his teams had made the other vessels obsolete. One difference between the two generations of vessels was something that SHADO and its pilots had been waiting for, armament that would allow them to take on their enemies once again.

His Mark Seven was armed up the wahoo, the lasers had been increased in power and the missile batteries modified to fit both nuclear and conventional payloads. More weapons were being hashed out for the vehicles but for the moment he was more than happy to fly this wonder of a machine. In a combat exercise he took down three eagles, six interceptor analogues and two lesser Mk Hawks, to say that SHADO command was happy was understating things. With a few more tests under their belts Commander Straker and the General had ordered the production of Hawks to begin as soon as the current eagles were completed, however in that interim the newest Eagles and the single prototype squadron that made up of the majority of the complete hawks were enough.

Six months later however was another matter.

"Detection Confirmed, six Unidentified Objects on direct course." The monotone voice of SHADO's long range scanning telescope S.I.D. sounded over his helmet. "Hawk Squadron in range."

Carter grinned nastily, the look not at home on his usually jovial face. The new Mark Nines were the best of the best, as were the twelve pilots from the Eagle and Interceptor Squadrons trained in their use. Three of the new vessels headed the flights while Marks Sixes through Eights were supporting them, now for the first time they would face the bastards that had taken so many innocents, six ships- the aliens had got cocky and today they would face their betters in a not so fair fight.

"Hawk Lead to all fighters, intercept course now."

He didn't wait for the acknowledgements as he slammed his ship's engines to maximum, accelerating out of orbit and directly towards the UFOs. None of the spinning discs even tried to break away to engage him or his squadron, confident in the fact that the first line of defence had been bypassed continuously for so long the aliens didn't give the new hostiles any thought.

The closest found out his mistake the hard way.

A trio of lasers from Carter's lead eagle stuttered across the UFO's heavy armour shattering the metals and slagging the hull underneath, unable to change course through damage or fear the pilot could only watch as a duet of nuclear torpedoes erupted from the Hawk's belly spinning across space in the blink of an eye before exploding taking the UFO with it. Far more powerful than those originally attached to the older interceptors the missiles all but vaporised the lead ship.

The rest of the alien flotilla facing the unexpected power of the Hawks were jumped by the eleven remaining fighters, lasers, missiles and fusion torpedoes rained onto them from all sides. Unable to return fire or to even evade the human built warcraft the glittering UFOs simply vaporised under the bombardment, first two then three then four came apart under the increasing bombardment.

Number Six by note of being the last in the formation dodged the first few shots from the Hawks, its own weaponry coming into play as the bright energy bolts from the saucer impacted on the flank of Hawk Two. The laser pierced through the heavy armour into the missile storage for the port side launcher, igniting the propellant on most and exploding sending shrapnel and debris flying.

Struggling with his damaged ship the pilot of Two was forced down by another hit to his engine block by the same UFO before it was forced away by his wingman sending it careening into a crossfire from Carter and his own wingman. Three barrages of laser fire centred on the spinning spacecraft annihilating it's outer hull allowing a missile to find its way into the delicate innards.

"YEAH." A shout came across the main communication channel, Carter grinned at the results his squadron had been able to garner. Six dead hostiles for one ship crippled and one slightly damaged, both would be up and running again within the month if the second squadron's construction was kept up to date.

"Hawk Lead to Shado Command."

"We read you Alan." The voice of Colonel Paul Foster came through the helmet speakers. "Great work out there all of you."

"We've got one damaged that won't make it through re-entry requesting permission to escort Hawk Four to moonbase."

"Permission granted Captain, Colonel Straker will be expecting you when you land. The rest of the squadron is to return for refit and rearming."

"Understood, Hawk Lead Out."

"Two years later they stopped coming, small groups of their advanced ships kept trying to break through but by that time three squadrons of Hawks were on site. One on the Moon one in near earth orbit and one on Earth, we'd built faster and better armed interceptors and replaced our moon shuttles with Eagles, we believed nothing would even considering coming after us again. Their final big push came in 1987 when they launched dozens of their small UFO class ships and two bigger bastards we'd never seen before, maybe some kind of cruisers or motherships . They must have been desperate by then to hit us so hard and so obviously, the public would have been alerted to the aliens if they got close enough." Alan explained, "It would have been next to impossible to stop them if they got close enough, we were looking at wide scale kidnapping across the planet."

"The observatories in Kenya and New Guinea were shut down for some reason for about a week that year." Burgstrom interrupted, "We were told there was a problem with the image software both were using, makes far more sense now."

"Every single armed ship that we could assemble met the alien fleet far beyond lunar orbit Professor, the observatories at the time were the only ones capable of seeing the battle. When we entered attack range we let rip, nukes, fusion missiles, laser cannons even old fashion mass drivers were loaded onto anything that could move and we hit them hard. We'd even assembled first generation Eagles and two dozen Interceptors for the attack. Both were modified with Hawk based systems but were short range support at best, both squadrons took the brunt of the attack, they knew they were sitting ducks but still went in guns blazing, they took the hits so the bigger more powerful ships could get close enough to blast the buggers into oblivion."

"Ninety ships went up against seventy six." Alan looked Koenig straight in the eyes, "Twenty three of us came back, and we started again. More ships were built, more defences established and more personnel recruited. That battle was the last time we ever saw those aliens. SHADO and the Hawk Squadrons were decommissioned in 1992 and everything ordered scrapped, salvaged or destroyed on the orders of General Henderson. He had it in for us from the get go, every time we made a stride forward he tried to pull us back. God knows why but he managed it anyway."

"Well that makes some sense." Paul looked at Alan, "You were the only one capable of taking down more than one of those fake Hawks that we went up against earlier this year."

"I think they might have got the information about them from my memory, I knew their weaknesses and their strengths and used it against them. A Hawk is so much more powerful than an Eagle it's stupid, it's why we're trying to rebuild one or two of our ships into something nastier."

Victor broke into the conversation "So the base you found was SHADO's moonbase?"

"Yeah home for about a year."

"Why was is hidden instead of being made part of Alpha?" Koenig asked

"That was way above my pay grade Commander, all I know is that the remaining personnel were redeployed or returned to their respective governments or joined up with the WSA like I did."

"Couldn't stay away from flying Alan?"

"Nope, joining the WSA was the only way to keep flying out here. My experience with the Hawk and Eagles pretty much guaranteed my position as head pilot of the Alpha project." Carter explained, "That's about it."

"Paul what's the possibility in rebuilding the other Moonbase as a backup?"

Morrow frowned as he brought up the lists of spares and equipment that they had to hand, it wouldn't be easy.

"We can get power and life support up if most of the original conduits are still installed, we might have to scrap one of the more badly damaged Eagles to do so though. We've got enough personnel to put together a skeleton crew and rotate them through but it'll be stretch, it might be better to rebuild it into a bunker in case we go through a fight that damages Alpha enough that we need to evacuate." Paul looked up at Alan, "You said that it was a fighter base right?"

"Yep, with luck it should still be most operational it was built to take a hell of a pounding before it was forced offline. "

"It's possible then we could turn it into a secondary Eagle facility as well, move some of the construction and refit docks underground and have a launch pad if we have trouble with Alpha's Eagle platforms." Morrow was understandably concerned with the fact that the Eagle pads had been crippled or disable enough times over the last year that a second set of bays would be a welcome addition to the station. "We don't have the ability to build a transit tube to the other station, whoever we send over there will have to make it home."

"The base if it's still habitable was suitable for about thirty people including pilots and ground crew, we could probably increase that the same way we've been rebuilding the caverns underneath Alpha. I could probably give you a layout of the place from memory, or find the specs when we take a look.."

"Alright then." Koenig began, "Alan and myself will check of the SHADO moonbase, Paul, Kano and Victor I need a full tally of anyone that can be spared for the new station. Any spares that can be used and the possibility of modifying the empty sections for other uses."

"If I may Commander." Tony looked up, Koenig nodded, "When the base was commissioned did it have any kind of close range defences, missiles, lasers?"

"Nothing when I was there, we figured that if it made it past the interceptors there would be little to no reason to hit moonbase. The hangers were too far below the surface for anything except a multi-megaton explosion to even come close to damaging, its possible there was upgrades once i left the base,"

"Which means that the explosion that caused breakway might have compromised them?"

"Possible, but I don't think so." Alan mused, "But you have a point, it might be useless but it's worth a look."

"Very well then, Alan get an armed survey Eagle prepped for launch tomorrow. I want to go and have a look at this moonbase."

"Tomorrow Commander?"

"Yes Alan, you know the station and it's layout and I want you flying us across to it. But i also know you've been on double shifts for the last three days."

"I'm fine."

"Maybe so but get some sleep and we'll reconvene tomorrow afternoon."

"Yes Commander."  
****


	4. The Next Great War

Title: The Next Great War  
Author: Ash's Boomstick  
Contact: "Ash's Boomstick"  
FR-15 For bad language  
Summary: A single moment can change reality as we know it, but for better, for worse or for both. A Babylon 5 Fanfic

NOTICE: THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREE OF CHARGE BUT MUST NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM.  
-COPYRIGHT/DISCLAIMER NOTICE-  
"Babylon 5." its characters, and certain technological devices and/or references to such, from the television show, past present of near future, may be or are registered trademarks of, and may be or are copyrighted by JMS, Babylonian Productions and Warner Bros.  
Only certain characters and technologies are mine and these are the creation of the author who is solely responsible for them as such. Neither Studio is responsible for the content of this story.

THIS STATEMENT MUST ACCOMPANY THE STORY "THE NEXT GREAT WAR" IF DISTRIBUTED. THIS STORY IS FREE OF CHARGE AND MAY NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM. THIS DEDICATION MUST ACCOMPANY ANY DISTRUBUTION OF THIS STORY.

Dedication: To the Unusual Suspects.

This is one of five stories that I am posting for people to make their choice on which of these prologues people would like to see the most of.

Graving Dock 19  
Io Station  
Jupiter Orbit  
April 22nd 2245

The explosion rippled through the entire rear of the cruiser, a slight miscalculation in the engine start up caused the Hyperion to ignite its engines too close to the retracting umbilical. Slush based hydrogen and oxygen fuels met ten thousand degree heat exploding on contact throwing the warship sideways into the drydock crashing through the metalwork coming to a stop against the dock's main structure.

"What the hell was that?" Screamed the executive officer, the alert klaxons almost completely drowning him out, "Get me a damage report now."

"I'm trying Sir." One of the crewmen on duty replied, "The main computers are down, main power is completely offline."

"Well hurry it up." Haynes replied, "Dammit, comms get us a channel with Io Command."

"I can't Sir, I've been trying. Our main comms antenna is out and the distress beacon has been destroyed by whatever just happened."

"Sir, we've lost internal communications and primary life support." One watch crewman shouted above the noise, "I can't get anyone below this deck."

The officer swam across to the other side of the bridge, microgravity on the stations was a pain but zero gravity aboard the heavy cruisers was even worse. Grabbing onto the back of the other man's chair he looked over the board, several were dark due to damage while more were red and black pointing to damage or complete loss of contact with other parts of the ship.

"I've got the damage report." The first crewman said next to them, "We've lost the entire rear third of the ship, the engines, weapons, links to the main reactor. Hull breaches across the entire rear of the main hull including the communication array, main scanners, life support and secondary power. Airlocks are damaged beyond repair when we were thrown against the dockyard, the gantries, umbilical tubes, everything was ripped apart jamming them open."

"Casualties?" Haynes asked, the klaxons stopping as he did so. The silence in the room was incredible after the sounds of depressurisation alerts, hull breach warnings and every alarm that could have sounded. "How many?"

"More than half the ship is out of contact Sir, but the entire back half of the ship is all but scrap… most of the habitation decks are holed or destroyed." The crewman lurched to the side as another detonation set off the fuel tanks to the manoeuvring thrusters, "Lower hull compromised, we've lost the last of the station keeping systems, I'm going to have to vent the remaining fuel and oxygen tanks."

Haynes dove across to his chair and opened up the all decks comm. unit at his console, "All hands this is the XO, main fuel and life support tanks are venting. Find a mask and hold tight. Out." He settled into his chair and held on. "Mr Myers at your convenience."

"Venting in two… one… now."

The Hyperion rocked against the damaged dock as millions of tons of compressed hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon escaped from the crippled warship into space. Its crew held tight to their chairs or posts scrambling to put on oxygen masks or finish climbing into survival pods, it took a few moment for the ship's movement to subside before the stricken ship ceased it's shuddering movement.

"Venting complete." The crewman relayed as he fixed his mask. "We're settled."

"What the hell happened?" Haynes demanded

"I don't know, the fuel umbilicals were retracting as we began start up for the main engine test. The entire engine core exploded as soon as we got to full power, the detonation of the main engines threw us into the dock's structure caving it around us. That's all I've got so far Sir. The majority of the external cameras and scanners are down."

"Comms?"

"Totally gone even the backups."

"Get someone into a Fury and get me a channel to the yard."

"Yes Sir."

The Hyperion shuddered again as the structure slipped against the dock's framework, already crumpled and bent it wouldn't be long until it gave way completely against the mass of the still slowly moving warship. Whilst there was no weight behind the vessel while in space it was still massive enough to cause damage to the dockyard, from the outside it was obvious to anyone who could see them that the ship was in dire straits. Without oxygen there were no flames but both the vented tanks and the damaged umbilicals had spewed out millions of tons of compressed slush hydrogen, kept solid but the vacuum cold of space slivers of fuel peppered the damaged vessel and the dock.

Inside the ship's hanger a single starfighter was hurriedly being moved into its launch cradle, the hanger doors opening up to give the Starfury a line of sight with the dockyard command and control.

"This is Starfury Blue Five to Io command come in."

"This is Io command, Identify yourself."

"Flight Sergeant William Cole, Acting Flight Commander EAS Prometheus." The pilot explained, "Out main comms are down we're using a Starfury's main antenna to report in."

"Understood Flight Sergeant, what the hell just happened down there."

"We've had a hell of an explosion Sir." Cole explained keying in a data transmission, "I'm sending you the latest information we've been able to gather. The Prometheus is all but dead Sir, we've lost more than two thirds of the crew. The entire rear half of the ship has been blown off or scrapped, communications is out as is main life support. We are in need of immediate assistance, be aware all main airlocks are damaged beyond repair."

"Understood Blue Five, inform your commander that we are dispatching emergency launches for evacuation. Captain Jankowski will been informed as to the nature of the damage, keep this channel open for more information."

"Aye Sir." The pilot tied in the shipboard channel to the other, "Blue one to Bridge."

"Bridge."

"Sir, the emergency launches are enroute as we speak. The Captain is being informed right now."

"Alright, tell the station we're assembling the remaining crew in the forward batteries." Haynes ordered, "Tell them that we need help finding the rest, whoever might be left."

"Yes Sir." Blue Five returned to the other channel, "Did you get that Io Command?"

"We got it Blue Five."

Within minutes two dozen small shuttles and pods were streaming through the gaps between the drydocks, dodging through broken structural members, hundreds of thousands of tons of hydrogen, oxygen and assorted other gasses before finally making it to the wrecked cruiser. The sight before them was unlike anything seen since the end of the Dilgar war twenty years earlier, the dock had cocooned the Hyperion Class ship like a claw clamping over the main hull and still closing as the ship pushed against it slowly.

"Alright people we've got a bare few hundred in the forward pulse battery spaces, pods are to clamp on and burn through. Get as many people on board as you can, we might not have much longer before this place gets too hairy for us." The command shuttle ordered, "Pods One through Nine head for the port side, Ten through Fifteen the forward section."

Breaching pods much like those used by GroPos units latched onto the outer hull of the warship and began slowly cutting through the thick armour, minutes later a handful released from their places only to be replaced by others. The remaining crew safely seconded aboard each of the pods before they launched, seven hundred crew had assembled for launch that day. Barely two hundred survivors made it aboard the breaching pods as they released, a bare few life pods erupted from areas of the hull still clear of the debris surrounding them but far too few to indicate more than a small number of survivors.

"SAR Shuttle Three to Prometheus Bridge, the lower decks are clear. We've got everyone we can find, scans show noone else is left on board except for the Command Crew."

"We've read you SAR 3, we've got a couple life pods still intact up here. We're on our way out."

"We'll pick you up as soon as you're clear."

"We're leaving now." Haynes looked up, "Ok people get to the pods."

The six remaining personnel aboard the ship drifted across the bridge to the rear hatch through the tunnels into a pair of life pods to one side, already active it took mere seconds for the crew to evacuate and launch themselves out into space. Two SAR shuttles moved slowly into the same trajectory and launched their magnetic lines onto the hulls of the pods, unable to contain themselves the remaining bridge crew of the EAS Prometheus looked out of the pod's view ports towards their lost ship.

"Good God."

"That's nasty."

"Five hundred people we left behind…"

The heavy cruiser was mangled almost beyond recognition, the rear hull was all but done, half vaporised and half twisted and shorn from the rest of the ship. Debris from the connecting framework drifted around the burnt and broken rear of the main hull looking like teardrops around the warship, every deck from the dorsal to the ventral were ravaged by the explosion. Shrapnel dozens of meters long pierced the decks while melted and warped framework from heat tens of thousands of degrees strong twisted the hull, furrows from the collision were evident across the entire outer skin of the ship peeling away armour plating and penetrating deep into the vessel.

Fuel and life support had been spilt or pumped out of the vessel haloing the Prometheus in bright droplets reflecting the lights of the surrounding station around the entire framework of the graving dock. Buried deep into the side of the enclosed yard she looked like nothing more than a broken child's toy lying on the ground destroyed and unwanted, the crew could barely look away as the shuttle moved towards the command station and away from the detritus caused by the explosion.

"Boss, what now?" the Comms crewman asked

"I don't know Forrest, I really don't know."

While a hard and brutal night for the crew of the EAS Prometheus and the rescue flotilla that would last for days afterwards, this was a single moment that would change the very fabric of time itself and rewrite history for both the better and for the worse.

Proxima Proving grounds  
Scylla Asteroid Belt  
Proxima System  
Earth Alliance  
March 25th 2260

The prototype broke free from the twin tenders strapped to either side, the angular block of metal pulling away with a surety in its own power. Its huge bulk dwarfing the specially constructed vessels that had been responsible for its journey to the testing site, both ships retracted their gantries before falling back to the massive civilian ship that had been requisitioned as the project's command centre.

"Omega One is free and clear, ready to go active."

"Omega One this is Alpha Base we acknowledge." came the return signal, "You are authorised for full burn and weapons hot."

"Understood. Engines at fifty percent and climbing."

"Escort flight Gamma entering Formation around Omega One, tying defensive systems into Targeting MultiBank."

"We have systems aligned and active." Omega one responded "Beginning live fire testing."

Earthforce had spent decades and trillions of credits designing and building this the first of the next generation of warships, the decline of Earthforce's military after the Dilgar War had ceased completely with the introduction of a new government in power after the 2257 elections allowing for the slowly maturing military projects to speed up. Replacements for the forty and fifty year old main line cruisers had become a necessity as relations between the EA and several of the other powers had started to become frosty, more and more raiders both home-grown and in the employ of alien races had become a threat to the economy of the Alliance.

Hyperions leading Olympus Class flotillas, Nova Class Battlegroups and hundreds upon hundreds of Starfury squadrons had been able to keep the peace for almost four decades but now for the first time in a generation Earth built heavy ships were coming to the forefront of the galaxy's war making capability. Stretching over twenty two hundred meters the massive Omega Class warships would replace the Hyperions as the last word of Humanity's new and improved advanced fleet.

The Omega surged forward as its engines came alive sending the multi-million ton vessel away from its escorting fleet, a pair of Hyperions and their Olympus Squadron had been assigned the job in case any of the other races decided to get cute. Problems had arisen due to the new ship's construction with the League of Non Aligned and the Centauri when their intelligence services have caught wind of the prototype, already more than one of the races had decided that Earth was starting another arms race for no reason.

As a battleship the Omega had been over engineered and given the heaviest weapons and well as the most advanced defences that the EA could put together, today was the first time that the majority of those systems would be put to the test under live fire and combat conditions. Armour plating thicker than some ships' hulls was clad around the delicate innards, covering the slow rotating habitation sections from stem to stern while allowing for the turrets of the warship's heavy weapons to poke out through gaps almost flush with the armour of those same guns.

From all five warships heavy pulse cannons and plasma mortars opened fire on the same dead asteroid ahead of them, made of mostly nickel and iron the major weapons of the Omega and it's Hyperion escorts shattered more than a third of the rock sending shards ripping into the surrounding asteroids or into space.

"Tertiary weapons are confirmed operational, moving to secondary systems."

The Omega slowed it's advance on the asteroid field strobing it's sensitive scanners across the melange of useless materials looking for the most suitable subject for it's weapons tests. Several hundred meters from the first target a long thin and bulky asteroid appeared on the scans.

"Beginning phase two."

"Escort flight in position."

"Firing"

Like many of their kind the Hyperions had been upgraded over the years with any technology that Earthforce could build, acquire or reverse engineer, heavy weapons had become a necessity as the aging design fell behind the best warships that the other races could field. The vast majority of these refits now came under two types, the pulse heavy patrol vessels or those equipped with heavy lasers, railguns and upgraded interceptors as their main armament.

All four of Escort Flight Gamma were equipped with the same heavy lasers as the secondary batteries of the new battleship, where each of them were equipped with two lasers each crowbarred into the hull the Omega had been designed with several turrets both forward and rear firing up to forty degrees port and starboard. Eight separate weapons allowed for a concentrated barrage equal to several heavy cruisers worth or firepower.

As one every heavy laser aboard the five warships erupt into streams of energy focussing in on the tip of the asteroid and shuttering down the rock gouging through thousands of tons of rock, ice and metals penetrating through and out the other side. Several seconds pass until the weapons fire ceases, with their parts finished the escorts peel off from their flanking positions pulling into a higher orbit of the battleship.

"Multibank to launch systems, fire at will."

Several heavily armoured shutters levered open from all sides flowering open to reveal the launch systems inside, dozens of small, medium and large missiles sat snug in their bays awaiting orders to fire. In a rotating salvo every missile in the ship launched into space spinning through the void their engines blazing as they sped up, almost as one they changed trajectory coming back on themselves as their fuel ran out slowing their movement through space until they floated , drifting slowly and calmly awaiting pick up from the tenders and their retrieval craft.

"Missile launch systems active and confirmed, three launch tubes unable to deploy. Secondary weapons are confirmed operational, minor overheat in forward battery three. Activating primary weapons systems."

"Phase Three in Operation." Alpha base commentated, "You are clear for main weapons testing."

"Primary weapons are at one hundred percent charge." Omega One responded "Firing Pattern Alpha."

From the front of the ship four large bore barrels began to glow as massive amounts of energy began to pulse through their systems, rings of electromagnets and particle colliders concentrated and transformed the raw power into something much more lethal. One by one each barrel emitted a heavy beam thicker in scale than some escorts, penetrating into the asteroid field simply vaporising smaller rocks while shattering others that were simply in the way. Millions of tons of rock disappeared under the bombardment of the four cannons, a second then third pattern of shots came from the Omega concentrating the firepower in pairs then in a combined assault.

The concentration of power was incredible, where there had been several dozen smaller and mid sized asteroids now there was little more than dust and debris slowly drifting through space. All of the weapons systems aboard the Battleship dimmed and stilled as the weapons drills came to an end, the omega herself sitting quietly and regally surrounded by her escorts.

"Phase Three completed, weapons at nominal power. Weapons tests are complete." Omega One transmitted, "Offensive systems going offline, main reactors to standby, engines to stationkeeping."

"Confirmed Omega One." Alpha Base received, "Standby for defence systems power up and activation."

"Standing by."

"Activate levels one and two."

"One and Two Aye.

As the other ships watched on a thick almost weblike energy field began to form around the prototype, whilst invisible to the naked eye the sensitive scanners of the EA force recorded the E-Web defence grid emitters gaining power increasing the field by more than five times that of the older Hyperions. Only moments later the field and the actual signature of the ship dimmed slightly as the ship's main electronic warfare suite came online reducing the cross section of the ship and nullifying the target locks of the other ships.

"Activate level three."

From across the entire hull smaller turrets began to emerge locking into place and turning to face the rapidly incoming Hyperions, the Interceptors were an ancient technology found and improved by the Alliance over the last hundred years. Usually tied into the E-Web and main weapons controls the Interceptors were the primary defence of every Earth Warship.

As one the Hyperions closed and began to fire on the Omega, four paths of fire reaching towards the armoured hull only to find their effectiveness all but useless as the interceptor cannons neutralised the barrages, the incoming energy blasts already destabilised by the heavy E-Web systems simply dispersed by the cheap and easily built plasma launchers.

More barrages came on their heels with more and more pulses hurtling through the void in a vain attempt to overwhelm the battleship, in quick succession the Interceptors stopped the incoming fire and locked onto the Heavy Cruisers sending small bursts of their own before being accompanied by the large pulses from the Omega's secondary batteries. Each of the other vessels straining to intercept the incoming fire with their own weaker defences, most of the fire being dispersed while the remaining pulses simply overwhelmed and impacted on the armoured hulls leaving little by scorch marks.

"Defence Levels One, Two and Three are confirmed operational, Experimental Interceptor Grid at thirty percent."

"Escort Group has two disabled ships and one mission kill, returning to Station."

"Omega One returning to cradle, Stage one testing complete."

Aboard the civilian ship thousands of hours of testing data had been flowing through the dedicated links to all five of the Warships, every moment of every test would be analysed and checked by teams of scientists, engineers, designers and fleet personnel until every problem was solved. For the moment however only the very biggest problems would get priority over the

"I think that was a qualified success." Doctor Miller smirked, the middle aged man had been one of the ship's major designers and the actual construction of the ship had been his brainchild. Whilst he had preferred working in the private sector creating one of a kind vessels for the rich and powerful, the contract for Earth Force's newest warship had been too lucrative to give up and so alongside a few dozen other engineers and designers he had been responsible for the Omega Class Battleship.

"Indeed, your new vessels should be far more capable than the older cruisers that you are using." His companion replied with barely a smile, "With a few more years' research we should be able to contribute to improving the next generation."

"Well without the help of the Federation the Omega would be a flying brick with god know what attached, your people have made it a hell of a lot simpler to build our ships."

"While more than a few of my people disagreed with helping the Earth Alliance we also deemed to prudent to assist you, our treaty can only be strengthened by this project. The technology that you have hybridised with your own is several centuries less advanced than our own…"

"Yeah I know, but even without some of the more advanced techs the new Battleships will end up supplanting the Hyperions completely, hell we might even get away with refitting them with heavier weapons and adding them as escorts to the newer ships."

"It is odd that humanity wish to keep advancing their technology but will stubbornly keep hold of that which is decades old."

"You use ship designs hundreds of years old, hell your main weapons are based on thousand year old technology."

"However our technology has evolved almost to the point that we will be unable to modify them without access to technology much like that of the first ones." Ra'thann spoke, "The modifications to our ships and technology thanks to human thinking has helped us immeasurably with the next generation of Warships."

"Like for like my friend." Miller frowned as the readings came up. "The rotational sections are slightly out of sync, the focussed blasts from the main weapons caused a power shudder down the hyperconductors."

"May I?"

"Go ahead."

The Minbari worker looked over the reports from the command ships' sensors and telemetry to the Prototype, already he could see the problems that had arisen from the newly developed particle cannons. While useful on planetary defences such as weapons satellites and space stations they were woefully inadequate for use by anything but the largest ships, the quadruple fixed weapons on the Omega were too powerful and too lightly engineered to survive the multiple shots that the advanced reactors were allowing them. Even with the Minbari assisted construction of both weapons and power systems the bulky cannons while far smaller were still just too much for the multi-kilometer long ship.

Even at the peak of Earth Alliance shipbuilding technology the weapons were just too powerful to have so many in one place at the same time, nodding at the records Ra'thenn handed back the touchpad before calling up the specifications for the warship.

"Too many weapons, Earth Force Command has requested too much too soon for the materials science of your people to accept. There is no way to stop the power and mechanical shears that will cause the rotating sections to unseat themselves."

"Dammit, I thought we had sorted that with the variable buffers."

"Apparently not, however I do believe that the ship itself is more than capable of accepting two of the cannons instead of the four requested." The Minbari explained, the excess energy can be redirected to engines or other weapons."

"We already have excess energy for the engines, without the four cannons the reactor will be too heavy and too powerful for the Omega which means another redesign of the main power systems." Miller wiped his hands down his face, "Then a redesign of the forwards weapons platform itself because it'll leave a damn great hole in the middle of the main structure. SHIT."

"Why did this not come up in the simulations?"

"I don't know, it should have." The engineer sighed. "If we missed this what else have we overlooked."

"This is as you humans say, "A Crock?"

"Close enough my friend."

Beta Seven  
Colony World  
Centauri Republic

"This can not be allowed to continue." The drunkard shouted, "It is an outrage and a affront to the Republic, an upstart race such as they should not be as powerful nor as influential as they are."

"Indeed, why exactly do you believe that?"

"The Republic is many hundreds of years old, we were destroying entire worlds when the humans were still learning how to create steam engines. Races that flock to their banner were terrified as they watched our fleets wipe out any defence that could possibly have been raised, the stars themselves trembled at our might and now what are we a broken and fading light of the galaxy."

"Now, now it can't be all that bad?"

"Bad, it is terrible." The Centauri sniffed, "The great Lion of the Galaxy toothless and tired, just like it's people and it's legacy."

"Well if you don't mind may I ask you a question?"

"Go on."

"What do you want?"


	5. Authors Note:

Authors Note:

Apologies to those that have already read these, however the parts already published were part of an aborted attempt to write something new on the Spacebattles website. There is no actual poll for them, I just forgot to remove that part from the chapters.


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